The present invention relates in general to a wick structure of a heat pipe, and more particularly, to a composite wick structure of a heat pipe having a tube circumferential surface in contact with a heat source, and the wick structure including a plurality of grooves and a sintered-powder attachment.
Having the features of high heat transmission capability, high-speed heat conductance, high thermal conductivity, light weight, mobile-elements free, simple structure, the versatile application, and low power for heat transmission, heat pipes have been popularly applied in heat dissipation devices in the industry. The conventional heat pipe includes a wick structure on an internal sidewall of the tubular member. The wick structure typically includes the sintered powder to aid in transmission of working fluid.
The fine and dense structure of the powder-sintered wick structure provides better capillary force for reflow of the liquid-state working fluid. However, during fabrication, an axial rod has to be inserted into the tubular member to serve as a support member of the wick structure during the sintering process, so as to avoid collapse of the powder which has not been sintered yet. Therefore, normally the thickness of the sintered powder wick structure is thicker. Consequently, the capillary thermal resistance is increased to be disadvantageous for the heat transmission. Further, requirement of the axial rod hinders the mass production of the heat pipe and causes fabrication and quality issues of the heat pipe.
Thus, there still is a need in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.